One of our IER Visiting Fellows, Professor Nadya Guimarães, Professor of Sociology at the University of Sao Paulo and former Director of CEBRAP, The Brazilian Centre for Analysis and Planning, has been elected as a member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences (ABC). The ABC, for which there is no direct equivalent in the UK, is a very important institution which nominates only the most distinguished scientists in the country. Only 17% of them are women, and even fewer are social scientists, only one a sociologist (two now with Nadya). So, this is a great achievement for the social sciences at large and for Nadya in particular, a recognition of the exemplary trajectory and leadership of an intellectually generous and creative social scientist. She has worked on a succession of joint projects with Professors Peter Elias and Kate Purcell since 1998, and from June this year, will be a spending a year on a Research Fellowship at the University of Cambridge, along with her husband Professor Antonio Sérgio Guimarães, who has been appointed as this year’s Simon Bolivar Professor at Cambridge.

Professor Nadya Guimarães and Professor Antonio Sérgio Guimarães will visit IER over the next year, so watch this space for stimulating seminars ahead.

IER would like to welcome Dr Zaiton Hassan from the Universiti Malaysia Sarawak who will be visiting IER from February.  Zaiton is a Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Cognitive Sciences and Human Development at Universiti Malaysia Sarawak. Whilst at IER, Dr Hassan will be completing her book on Work-Life Balance in Malaysia and working with IER staff with similar interests.